Thoughts on business, entrepreneurship, and life from a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and writer.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Cutting the Bullshit

The world seems to be full of bullshit.

Everyone has an agenda, and is spinning away like a whirling dervish.

In politics, pundits and strategists try to help candidates win the news cycle.

In the news, every story--like an anchor's hair--is teased to within an inch of its life to keep viewers tuned in.

On social media, people make outlandish statements to attract attention and reactions.

Entrepreneurs torture their numbers to come up with hockey stick charts so they can pretend they have traction.

VCs quietly bury their failures and then pretend that they never happened.

Every startup is "a leading player" in their field.

The problem with all this bullshit is that it's inefficient.

You know people are lying, but you don't know by how much to discount their statements.

To be conservative, you discount heavily, which tilts your stance towards passivity.

In other words, all this BS has a price.

You may think that you can't cut the bullshit, because it will leave you vulnerable.

One of my VC friends once asked me, "Chris, aren't you worried that you're missing out because you're not always spinning?"

In a word, no.

Cutting the bullshit means that I don't have to remember what story I told to whom. Cutting the bullshit means that when I say something, people know they can actually believe it. Cutting the bullshit means that people would rather work with me than with other people, even when those others' bullshit makes them seem more successful.

Cutting the bullshit won't hurt you; it will help you. And if we all cut the bullshit, we'll all be better off.